(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, 2 John is one of my favorite books of the Bible. All of the stuff that John wrote is pretty much my favorite stuff in the Bible. You know, the Gospel of John, 1, 2, and 3 John, the Book of Revelation. This was all written by the Apostle John, not John the Baptist. That kind of threw me off for the first time when I was a little child. When I read John chapter 1, it said there was a man sent from God whose name was John. I figured that's, you know, the guy who the book's named after, but I learned quickly that it wasn't him. But 2 John is a powerful book, and it's filled with so much great stuff. I'm going to try to cover as much of it tonight as I can, and to do justice to this powerful chapter in God's Word. It really kind of forms a couplet with 3 John. It has a lot in common with 3 John. You can almost picture him kind of just sitting down and writing these two letters to two different people that he sends it out to, because they have a lot in common. They say a lot of the same things. One of the things that you just see come up over and over again in those first few verses is just the truth. The truth. The truth. The truth. Did you notice that? And then in 3 John, it's just the truth. I mean, this is a man, and obviously we realize that the Bible is written by God, but God used men to write the Bible, and he used their different styles and their personalities to write the Bible, and that's why you can tell a big difference between the books that John wrote versus the books that Paul wrote, even though it's all the eternal Word of God. That's one of the amazing things about the Bible. Just as Jesus Christ was both God and man, the Bible is both human and divine. It's perfect. It's inspired by God. It's the perfect Word of God without error, and yet God used a human being to pin that down, which is amazing. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So as we read this, we see the importance of the truth, and the author of the book is just hammering in these chapters, even in the books of 1 John and 3 John, just how important it is to have the truth. And that should be really important to us to make sure that we're right, to make sure that we know the truth, to make sure that our doctrine is correct, not just that our heart's in the right place, quote, unquote, because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We better have the truth. We better be accurate. We better know what we're talking about, and that's what you could tell John had close to his heart. Look what the Bible says in the beginning there, verse 1. The elder, that's John speaking, unto the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth. He's saying, I love you. I love your children. And he says, not me only, but he said, all those that have known the truth, they love you as well. You know, he's greeting her from other people. And then in verse 2, he follows that up with, for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever. Now why does the truth dwell in us? Well, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and the Holy Spirit is the truth. You know, the Bible says, sanctify them by thy word. Thy word is truth. Jesus Christ said, I am the truth. Jesus also talked about the Holy Spirit as the spirit of truth. So if we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, that's the truth living inside of us. If we memorize scripture and hide God's word in our heart, then we have the truth in us and the Bible says that the truth shall be with us forever, because the Bible says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And then the Bible says in verse 3, grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and in love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. So again, just the emphasis is on loving the truth, knowing the truth, and then walking in the truth. You know, not to just know it, but what really made them rejoice was when they're actually walking in it and they're actually doing the word of God, not just hearing the word of God. They're doers of the word. Now let's stop and talk about this great little phrase in verse 3, God the Father. Now I've got a list here where I printed off all of the instances of that exact phrase in the Bible, God the Father. Now obviously there are a lot of scriptures that talk about the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and it would take much more than one sermon to go through those, but what I want to go through as we get to this point in 2 John is just that exact phrase, God the Father. So there are lots of other verses, just to make it clear, that just talk about the Father, the Father sent the Son, the Father loves the Son, things like that. But this is just that exact term, God the Father. It's used 12 times in the New Testament. And let me just read these for you. I'm going to have you turn to some of these and not others, just for sake of time. So why don't you just go ahead and flip over to Galatians chapter 1. And while you're turning to Galatians 1, I'm going to read you the first time that this phrase is used in the Bible, this term, God the Father. So this is rolled out in John chapter 6 verse 27. The Bible says, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. So what I want you to see in this verse and in the other 11 instances is that the term God the Father is to distinguish from Jesus, to distinguish from the Son of God. So if we just say God, a lot of times that's referring to the Father, but we don't really know for sure could it be referring to Jesus. Is it referring to just God in general? Because the Bible says in Hebrews 1.8, unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. So sometimes the Bible uses this term God the Father just to make sure that we know that we are specifically talking about God the Father. And it's always in contrast with Jesus. So that's what we see the first time it's mentioned. It says, the Son of Man, for him hath God the Father sealed. Look down at Galatians chapter 1 verse 1. The Bible says Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. Look at verse 3, grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. So notice in the same breath it's God the Father and Jesus, God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Flip over if you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. While you're turning there I'll read for you Ephesians 6.23, peace be to the brethren in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 2.11, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Look down at your Bible there, 1 Thessalonians 1.1, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1. While you're turning to 2 Timothy 1 I'll read for you from Titus 1.4, to Titus mine own son after the common faith, grace mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 2, to Timothy my dearly beloved son, grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at Jude if you would, the book of Jude which is just right near where we were in 2 John. While you're turning there I'll read 1 Peter 1.2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. And then 2 Peter 1.16 the Bible reads, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am. Well please. And then Jude says in verse 1 there, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now with that go back to 2 John. So we've just looked at the other 11 instances in the Bible of this term God the Father. And what we see consistently is that the contrast is being made between God the Father and Jesus. That's why he doesn't just say God, he wants to distinguish God the Father from Jesus who I believe it's appropriate to call God the Son. Now some people will take issue with that phrase God the Son and they'll say hey that's not in the Bible. The Bible doesn't say God the Son. Now I think it's perfectly natural to infer God the Son because it's sort of like if you ran into a guy who's named Steven Anderson Senior. You pretty much know that there's going to be a Steven Anderson Junior. If there's a book or a movie that's called part 1 then there has to be a part 2. So the implication is there. But when you have people that balk at this term God the Son or God the Holy Spirit usually these are oneness Pentecostal types or modalists who reject the teaching of the Trinity. People that talk about the Trinity and believe in the Trinity and understand the doctrine of the Trinity they'll use the term God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That's why I grew up with that terminology. But people that are trying to attack this doctrine of the Trinity they'll take issue with that term God the Son. Okay well then let's not talk about that term God the Son since it's not scriptural right? Let's go with the scriptural term. If we go with what the Bible actually says in the 12 verses that we just looked at we end up with what? We end up with God the Father as opposed to Jesus. Isn't that what it said in all these verses? God the Father and the Lord Jesus. God the Father and Jesus. Okay well think about this then. What's with their phony oneness Pentecostal teaching that God the Father is named Jesus? Well if God the Father is named Jesus that wouldn't make any sense to make a special point in 12 verses to say hey we want to distinguish God the Father here to distinguish him from Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is not God the Father and anybody who could read these 12 mentions of God the Father and walk away saying oh that's Jesus is clearly not saved because they can't understand the Bible. I mean that's a weird thing to walk away from these verses saying oh well God the Father oh that's Jesus. No wrong. There's God the Father and then there's Jesus and then there's the Holy Ghost and that's your Trinity right there. So you know if you don't like the term God the Son then don't use the term God the Son. You could just call him the Lord Jesus Christ and just realize that he is God because unto the Son he saith thy throne oh God is forever and ever. God was manifest in the flesh. Now look down at your Bible there in 2 John verse number 3 it says grace be with you mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love. So I mean anybody who's just reading the Bible and just believing it for what it says is not going to come away with this harebrained stupid idea that God the Father is named Jesus and and God the Father is Jesus. No wrong. OK. Jesus is God but he's not God the Father. That's why God even came up with this term God the Father and distinguishes between him and Jesus. OK. Because there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. There's one God made up of Father Son and Holy Ghost and of course that's very biblical and I don't have time to go into all that tonight but I just wanted to emphasize that the term God the Father is used distinguished from Jesus right. There's Jesus and then there's God the Father. So you have to really twist scripture and turn it on its head in order to come up with that false doctrine. Now let's keep going. What it says here and by the way that whole doctrine oneness Pentecostalism it's all based on a Jesus only baptism. That's where it comes from. 1913 in modern times is where it reared up its ugly head. So the hallmark of the Jesus only movement or modalism or oneness Pentecostalism is baptizing in the name of Jesus only because they say well the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost is just one name and that name's Jesus. Well that's a false doctrine. We just looked up God the Father and saw that that's crazy in light of what the scriptures actually say. So beware of that. You know when you're out soul winning you'll run into this where somebody says well have you been baptized in the name of Jesus though and you tell them well I've been baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost. Now a person who actually believes the Bible knows the Bible understands the Bible would understand that if you've been baptized in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost that covers Jesus because Jesus is one of those three people. He's the son. So you know I got baptized in the name of God the Father Jesus and the Holy Ghost right. But they say well yeah but have you been baptized in the name of Jesus only. And then they'll teach often that that's the only legitimate baptism when you run into these people and so you know when you hear them talking about that out soul winning then you know just expect them to take you to Acts 2 38 and their oneness Pentecostal and they're going to try to teach you that you can lose your salvation and that you need to be baptized to be saved and all this stuff. You know and I've seen this out soul winning from the first few months I went soul winning. Even 19 years ago I've run into these these crazy charismatic holy roller Charismaniacs that are tongue talking demon possessed types and they're hard core on the Jesus only movement oneness Pentecostalism tongue talking. And then today we have independent fundamental Baptists that are going on YouTube and borrowing their doctrine and repackaging it for us. And you know what. We didn't suffer them. No not for an hour because when I found out about it in our church I fired the guy who was teaching it and excommunicated everybody within one hour. We didn't put up with that junk for an hour in this church and we never will because this church a Trinitarian church you know and we don't budge on that. So the Bible says here in verse 4 I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee lady not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee but that which we had from the beginning that we love one another. And this is love that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning you should walk in it. So he's saying I'm not writing something new to you. This is something that you've had from the beginning that we love one another. But then he gets practical because it's pretty easy just to say love one another. Let's all just love each other. But what does that look like practically. So he explains you know here's how you're going to love one another. This is love that we walk after his commandments. I mean that's what love looks like. And this is the commandment that is you've heard from the beginning you should walk in it. So how do we walk in love. We walk in love by keeping the commandments. The Bible says oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another has fulfilled the law. For this thou shall not commit adultery thou shall not kill thou shall not steal thou shall not bear false witness thou shall not covet. And if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. You know if I love my neighbor I'm not going to work ill to my neighbor. So this is love that we walk after his commandments. So obviously if I kill someone that proves that I don't love that person. If I steal from someone that shows that I don't love that person. If I bear false witness about someone that shows I don't love that person. If I commit adultery with some man's wife then that shows that I don't love that man and by the way I don't love that woman either because none of that's fulfilling the law. And so when you see people in fornication that are not married and they say oh we're just in love with each other. Well wait a minute that's lust. That's not love. Love is that we walk after. In fact I preached a whole sermon one time called fornication is not love. It's sin. It's wicked. And if he loves you he'll marry you. And he won't just use you. And you see it so often nowadays where men are even having children with women. But they won't make that commitment. They won't put a ring on that finger. They will not swear an oath till death do us part. No they just want to just live with them for now and many times even the woman wants to get married but she just keeps going along with it. Well you know what women young ladies you need to have more respect for yourself than that and not allow some man to use you and demand that he marry you or he keep his hands off you and not defile you and lie with you and fornicate with you. No you need to remain pure until you're married. And you young men don't you go out and defile some woman that you're not married to. You know that's somebody else's possible future wife. If you're not willing to make that commitment you know she might end up marrying someone else. Don't defile her before she even gets to marriage. Just to fulfill your own carnal fleshly appetite it's wicked and so you know bearing false witness coveting someone else's stuff that's not love stealing murder adults. All of that is briefly comprehended in this saying thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You know if you if you love people you'll fulfill the law. This is love that we walk after his commandments the Bible says. And so the most loving people are the people who are following what the Bible says the most and the people who are straying the furthest from what the Bible teaches. These are the most unloving people that you'll run into according to God's definition of love and you'll find this to be true in your life. People that love the Lord they also love their brothers and sisters in Christ. People who truly love their brothers and sisters in Christ they also love the Lord and these are also the same people that are not thieves liars fornicators adulterers etc. Now all of us are sinners none of us is perfect but when you see people just going deep into sin it just shows you that the love of the Father is not in them. And the more we grow in love we're going to get more and more sin out of our life and obviously we're never going to love him perfectly. We're always going to still have sin and so we just need to keep on growing in love and increasing our love for the Lord and for our fellow Christian. And when I say we're never going to be perfect I mean in this life. Obviously once we die and go to heaven then we'll be free of the flesh and then we will be perfect. Thank God for that. So the Bible says in verse 7 for now the word for is a conjunction right and it means because. So he's saying look this is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning you should walk in it. Why? He says for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought. Wrought means the work that we performed the things that we've gotten done. He's saying we don't want to lose the things which we brought but that we receive a full reward. Now I really want to spend a lot of time on this section because this is a really important section here. And I want to tie it in also with verse 9 where it says whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son. Verses 7 through 9 are super important today in the world that we live in because I see this over and over again Christians who have great potential and are doing works for the Lord and they get out of church, they fail, they turn aside from the right path. And this is a warning to the types of people who would turn aside and get off course. You see wouldn't it be great if all the people that we look around at tonight in the auditorium wouldn't it be great if everybody who's here tonight would just continue to serve God for the rest of their lives? Why not? And as a pastor and even just as a church member you look around at your friends and your co-laborers in the church and your brothers and sisters in Christ and I don't know about you but I assume that everybody's going to just continue to be here and everybody's going to keep on soul winning and reading their Bibles. And obviously in the back of my mind I know that that's not true but as far as when I look at each person individually that's what I think about that person individually. I don't look around thinking oh he's going to fail, she's going to fail, she's going to wash up. You know I go into it with an attitude. I mean we all love the Lord. We're here on Wednesday night. You know we fought traffic or whatever to get here and we're here and we've stopped everything even in the midweek service. We're not just a Sunday morning only type of a guy and I mean we all love the Lord. We're all fired up. We're at Faithful Word Baptist Church. We could be at a church down the street where it's a little more comfortable, a little less heat coming from the pulpit and you know but we're here. And I just I would just love it if we could all just continue right. Now look that's how John felt. John had reached people with the Gospel. He'd started churches, he'd won people to Christ and he's talking to these particular people and he's saying how he rejoiced greatly that he found of them walking in truth. Now notice what he says there at the beginning of verse 4. They're not all walking in truth because he said I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth. He didn't say hey I rejoiced greatly that I found all thy children. Of thy children means some of them. You know I found of thy children walking in truth. Why? Because a lot of people even that are truly saved and even that truly are children of God they stop walking in the truth. They might just stop and slow down or even go backwards and get backslidden right. Just because you're a child of God it doesn't mean that you're going to be walking in truth but when we find of our children walking in truth we rejoice greatly. That's what gives us joy as Christians when we see people that we've preached to or won to Christ or co-labored with when we see them continuing that's a blessing right. Now look what he says in verse 8. I want you to really wrap your mind around this chapter. He says in verse 8 look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we've wrought but that we receive a full reward. He's saying look we've accomplished something here. We've worked to get you saved or get you baptized or get you in church or teach you the Bible or teach you soul winning or whatever but we've invested you and we want you to look to yourself. We want you to beware that you continue that as you've heard from the beginning that you just keep on walking in it right. Why? Because we want to receive a full reward. Now why is that? Because obviously if you quit serving God you don't receive a full reward because you're rewarded based on your works. Now you're not saved by your works you're only saved based on your faith but the Bible says behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. So our rewards are based on our works and he's saying look if you want to receive a full reward you got to run the full race. You got to do the full amount of work. Now I personally believe that what he's saying here is that because these are people that he won to Christ he wants them to continue even so that he can get a full reward. Because think about it if I win somebody to Christ and then that person goes out and wins a whole bunch of people to the Lord well then you know I had a part in that. You know if a mother raises a godly son and then that godly son grows up to be a man of God and accomplishes great things you know that's a reward for her. So she could say to her son hey look to yourself that I don't lose what I put into you I want to receive a full reward. You know I didn't change all those thousands of diapers and you know wipe your dirty bottom and feed you and get up in the middle of the night with you and doctor you when you're sick so that you could grow up and be a fool and ruin your life. You know I was doing that unto the Lord because I wanted you to rise up and do works for the Lord and we want to both receive a full reward. I think John's saying you know you and me we both look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we've wrought but that we would receive a full reward. Why because we're working together to get rewards here we're working as a team here. The ones who preach and the ones who are getting preached to the ones who go out soul winning and the silent partner that's right there with them working together we're a team here and we want to receive a full reward. Now the Bible is saying that there are many deceivers that have entered into the world and so there are all these deceivers out there and the goal of these deceivers is to get you off of God's plan for your life to get you out of the will of God and serving God and they want to get you off that path and you got to look to yourself and make sure that you don't let that happen. Now when the Bible says whosoever transgresses what does transgressing mean? Transgress basically means to cross a line okay if we just break down that English word trans means cross. Gress means go so transgress is like to go across it's like you're crossing a line for example we said regress we're talking about going backwards right if we're talking about digressing we're talking about going off course there so when the Bible says whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God you see even if you're saved even if you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you you can get into false doctrine you can get into even heresy you can dabble in some some even pretty bad stuff if you don't know the Bible if you're not grounded in what you believe but there's a point where when somebody crosses a line where you notice that somebody just they get so off on their doctrine where you're like this guy's not even abiding in the doctrine of Christ anymore it's not that he's just a little off doctrinally he's transgressed and no longer is he even abiding in the doctrine of Christ you look at that person say that guy doesn't even have God that guy's not even saved he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son so these deceivers the Bible tells in verse 7 they're entered into the world they confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an Antichrist I don't think there's any doubt that that guy in verse 7 is not saved he's a deceiver and an Antichrist obviously this is a horrible person but the look to yourselves those aren't bad people right he's talking to good people he's talking to people that are saved he's talking to people that he's won to Christ he wants to receive a full reward he wants them to continue as they've heard from the beginning to keep walking in it and keep doing what they're supposed to be doing right so it's possible for the good guys in verse 7 I'm sorry the good guys in verse 8 to get what led astray by the bad guys in verse 7 look there are these really bad unsaved people out there look to yourself that you don't let them do what get you off of serving God now if that deceiver and Antichrist can get you all the way over onto his doctrine well that just shows that you weren't even saved in the first place if he can get you all the way but what we need to understand is that even if he doesn't get you all the way onto his garbage he can still get you confused he can get you watered down on your doctrine he can get you to take a compromise doctrinal stance he can get you out of church he can get you to quit soul winning he can get you into sin she could seduce you and harm you in other ways so these deceivers and Antichrist could be male or female because there was Jezebel who was one of these in the book of Revelation and so these people can even deceive even people that are saved so don't get this attitude well I know I'm saved I'm never going to go off the deep end doctrinally well you know there are even saved people who get into some stupid doctrines but when they go full blown into heresy where they get to a point where you'd say okay they've transgressed to where they're not in the doctrine of Christ anymore then you look at that person and say that person's not even saved you know I mean some examples of that would be that there are a lot of people that are saved and they'll get caught up in this repent of your sins salvation and they don't the people that are the architects of this the ones who really push this hard are deceivers Antichrists wicked people that are just teaching a full blown works salvation the ray comforts of this world okay but they can get a lot of people mixed up to where they don't go as far as ray comfort will take it they don't go as far as some of these other really bad false teachers will take it but they'll be like well you just kind of have to be willing to change and just kind of sorry and just feel bad about things and you know so they'll kind of take a more watered down lukewarm stance where they're not teaching a full blown works salvation you wouldn't look at that person and say hey you're not even saved but they'll get kind of a hybrid view and you run into this all the time where they're not a hardcore lordship salvation type that's telling you that you're saved by turning over a new leap and repenting of all your sins but they just kind of lean that way a little bit who's kind of seen that yeah look at everybody practically where they just kind of lean that way and when you try to pin them down on what they believe they can't even really give you a straight answer because they're kind of living in a gray area about what repent of your sins even mean so we want to be careful that that's not us that we don't get into that kind of junk and we want to make sure that we stay strongly on salvation by faith alone believe on the lord jesus christ now shall be saved but when you see somebody go all the way off the cliff you know that just shows you that guy hath not god another way of saying he's not even saved he's not of god john uses that term a lot like being of god or having god and versus not having god and i've seen this so much just being in church my whole life and especially being a pastor over the last 12 years you see people that are saved they're good people they love the lord they're sincere they're not bad they're not out to be wicked or sinful or to fail but you see bad people get them off course and get them out of church and there are a lot of doctrinal errors where people can go off the rails into heresy so you need to decide that you're going to be one of the people that stays on the right path now what often takes people on these detours away from the right doctrine is pride because they get this attitude of like well i don't want to just go to church and just believe what the pastor's preaching i want to kind of be a rebellious teenager spiritually and kind of show my parents that i know some things too now here's the thing we all know that children aren't supposed to just blindly believe and do everything that their parents tell them to do but the bible does command obedience to our parents and to honor our parents and most of the time our parents are right and especially if your parents are christians and they're in church they're probably right 99 of the time and so the default should be to assume that your parents are right if your parents disagree with you they're probably right because your brain when you're a teenager isn't functioning properly because there are all these hormonal changes going on in your body i'm serious there are all kinds of hormonal changes going on in your body and your brain doesn't quite function properly when you're a teenager and so you know we all said and did a lot of stupid things when we were teenagers any of us would testify to that but at the time we felt like we knew everything and and we know way more than our parents and everything like that so the wise child will obey their parents listen to their parents advice unless there's just a really blatant thing like if obviously if your parents are telling you to lie or your parents are telling you something that just blatantly contradicts the bible obviously you got to go with what god's saying but in general your parents are right and the wise child will listen to that but isn't it a phenomenon that the vast majority of teenagers they don't go into it with an attitude that says my parents are probably right i should obey and listen to and follow what my parents are teaching unless there's a very compelling reason not to no they go into it with an attitude of just disregarding a lot of what their parents are saying and just thinking that their parents don't know what they're talking about so they get this attitude right this rebellious teenager attitude and part of it is the desire to not be a child anymore and to prove that i'm an adult now those of us that are in our 30s we're not trying to prove that we're an adult we don't have this need to persuade where we just want to make sure that everybody knows that we're not a kid anymore because we're so far from that but for a teenager because they're kind of between those two worlds they have to like convince everyone that i'm not a little kid anymore it's sort of like little kids they'll play with any toy that you bring them they'll play any game that you get out but you'll get to a point where they get about nine ten eleven twelve where they you know you'll pull out something you can tell you could see it in their eye they want to play with that toy but but they just kind of go like oh that's i'm too old for that that's for babies that's for kids they want to get in there and play with it but they don't want to show that whereas if an adult wanted to play you know some toy with their five year old they just get in there and do it because you know what they have nothing to prove the true adult doesn't have to just go through life proving that they're an adult right right but that ten year old eleven year old who they kind of want to prove hey i'm a teenager now even though they're like 11 but they want to prove that so they'll kind of try to act that way and then the teenager kind of wants to shows you know i'm an adult now i'm i'm my own man i'm making my own decisions now and we look at that as adults don't we think it's kind of stupid and foolish and it's not wise and and it's it's not advisable well the same thing often happens spiritually where people they they start out as a new believer and they're just humble and they're just ready to learn and they just want to read their bibles and and listen to the preaching and they're not blindly following everything they're trying to learn and understand why not to just shut up and do it because i said so but they want to learn but they have a sincere heart that wants to learn they're not disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing you see the difference the teenager will argue with every word out of your mouth sometimes like if you say up they're just gonna say down and if you would have said down they would have said up that's a teenager mentality sometimes it's just it's just an attitude that just wants to go against authority just for the sake of just being different and look how many teenagers they'll dye their hair weird colors put on weird clothes that don't make any sense why just to stand out just to be different and the root of that sin is called the pride of life so the the big major sins are the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life these are the three things that kind of lead us into sin so pride of life is different at different stages in life but as a teenager that's kind of how the pride of life manifests itself okay well spiritually it's the same attitude where people they start out as a humble student of the Bible they are respectful they're enjoying Church they're serving God and they're a team player they're not looking for vainglory they're just a team player they just want to be a part of the team and serve God but then a lot of times people get to a point where they want to start proving that you know I you know I'm thinking for myself I'm not a baby Christian anymore I'm ready to do my own thing and whatever I don't need Pastor Anderson to tell me or I don't need brother so-and-so to tell me or I don't need these people you know what the church to tell me because I already know what I believe even though I've only read the Bible one and a half times and they get a little bit of knowledge and they get puffed up and they get that attitude and they go through like a spiritual teen rebellion but see people that are actually mature Christians they don't have to prove anything like that so they can walk into a church without having an attitude of like well I think I probably already know more than the pastor anyway and and just this attitude of just trying to pick everything apart and trying to find fault with everything and trying to find stuff to disagree with because I don't want you know I don't want people to think that I'm just like a mindless follower of Pastor Anderson or faithful word so I better just make sure and just disagree with him on some stuff now look if I'm biblically wrong disagree with me but don't just be a rebellious teen punk that just disagrees with me just for the sake of disagreeing with me or just to show that you're different just to prove to everybody see I do my own thing this is really true I've seen this my whole life and so you want to make sure that you don't get prideful like that it's just stupid it's vain you see a mature believer they walk into a church you know I go I go to independent Baptist churches when I'm on vacation or if I'm traveling somewhere to preach or do missions or something you know I walk in and I walk in wanting to like the church they have to talk me out of it you know what I mean they they don't have to talk me into liking it I already walk in liking it I walk in loving the church loving the pastor having a good attitude ready to receive the Word of God with all readiness of mine you know I got the fork and I got the spoon and I got the napkin tied around my neck and I'm ready to eat I'm ready to be fed spiritually and I assume it's a man of God I assume it's the truth I don't go into it you know this guy's not part of our movement so I don't know if this guy is gonna be you know what he's supposed to be that's a bad attitude but you know mature believers though they'll walk in and they don't have any problem just just humbling themselves and just going along with the program and not picking everything apart and trying to find something wrong with it and just trying to be different disagree or speak up you know they're just ready to just shut up and learn and enjoy and worship the Lord and have fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ right this is nothing to prove and so we need to be aware of this you see we want to stay on the path that brings forth fruit and this is something that's under emphasized today in our churches and in Christianity in general is it's all about bringing forth fruit and and you say well how do we know who's right and who's wrong how do we know who's a true preacher and who's a false prophet well the Bible already told us that over and over again why don't you listen he tells us they're known by their fruit but it seems like that's not the criteria that we often use to figure out who's right and who's wrong but you know what that's the Bible's criteria so you look at the fruit okay and when you're in the will of God and when you're in church and when you're humble and you love the Lord and you're reading your Bible and praying and participating in soul winning you will bring forth fruit it's going to happen why because he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him but the devil has all these deceivers and anti-christ their goal is to pull you out of the team to get you out of the local church to get you away from your brother's assistant Christ that you're actually serving God with and bringing forth fruit with and to try to pull you off and pick you off and get you out of the fight and they want to turn you aside and the tool that they use is vain jangling they're gonna swerve you the Bible used the word swerve like you're driving down the road and then you're just like some have swerved the Bible says and they've turned aside into vain jangling and then what's the next word desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor where of they affirm what's it say these people who don't know the Bible but they desire to be the teacher what is that it's pride they're puffed up they don't know as much as they think they know but they want to be the preacher they want to be the teacher and they swerve into vain jangling meaning that they talk about dumb stuff that basically sets them apart and it's kind of a cute new doctrine or whatever so these antichrists and deceivers they want to get you off on this junk so and it let me just give you some examples of some of the things that i've seen like you know here you are you're going through life you're soul winning you're participating in the church people are being saved you're growing in the Lord everything's honky-dory right why can't we just keep doing it why can't we just keep growing and serving God and winning people to Christ and just you're still here five years from now and 10 years from now and our church is growing and it's just soul winning marathon after soul winning marathon and we reach the whole state and we re no no you get off into vain jangling like for example well i think calling upon the name of the Lord is a work salvation that's what people will come up with like like that that just asking Christ to save you now even that's works you know and and then and then people get all hung up on that stupidity and and i get so i see people that are deceivers and they try to bring this into our churches and here's what i've heard them say you know this is a subject that's kind of controversial in our churches it's kind of controversial our movement really it's never been controversial in our church because our church has always had the same doctrine for 12 years and we all of our soul winning ministries we all lead people in prayer to trust Christ as savior when we're done preaching them the gospel that's what we and in fact every pastor that i fellowship with does the same thing every single one that's the soul winning i grew up with that's the soul winning our church has done for the last 12 years that's the only kind of soul winning that we do around here we preach the gospel and then we assist people to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation it's all we've ever done every pastor that we fellowship does the same thing and then these people try to creep in with this lie that is kind of controversial in our movement it's kind of controversial in our church or this is something that it's kind of it's only controversial amongst fools it's not it's it's it's so ridiculous and such a vain jangling and i've done whole sermons about it the bible is crystal clear that if you ask for it it's still a gift it doesn't make it not a gift anymore but there's oh asking is works that's not you know what if that's controversial with you go to church somewhere else please because i don't want you turning people aside swerving them off to your stupid vain jangling it's an attack on soul winning plain and simple is what it is it's a thinly veiled attack on soul winning and i'm not saying that everybody who gets mixed up and it's a bad person i'm saying there are some verse eight people who get mixed up in that stupidity because some wicked verse seven person came in and started talking this junk into their ears and then what happens people get out of church they quit the church they quit soul winning because they get off on that you know the flat earth or something you want to talk about vain jangling i mean you want to talk about an issue that just doesn't affect the price of tea and china at all but that issue will take people out of church because that becomes the main thing i mean we had a guy in our church it is it's all he wanted to talk about and i told him i said i don't have no desire to talk about that i think it's stupid i'm not interested and this guy he just kept wanting to talk to me about it and i'm just like look what do you not understand about what i'm saying to you i am not interested in your stupid flat earth not interested you know and then finally the guy just got out of church over it okay then i go to the gym and the guy was working out at the same gym that i was at and and the guy walks up to me and it's like the first thing out of his mouth is something about the flat earth i'm just like dude but that look that's how these these flat tards they get evangelical about it they get evangelical about it they get obsessed with it and it literally just takes it just it just derail now look i think the people that are behind that movement they probably work for the government it's probably some kind of a psychological experiment or something i think they're probably are just paid drones or machines because there's so many flat earth comments on youtube they're just being churned out like every moment of the day but but i think a lot of good people get sucked into it you know they just get sucked into this even though the people that are behind it are bad okay and and you know it's it's that way with a lot of these things okay the repent of your sins thing you know obviously what we've been dealing with lately this thing of the trinity attacking the trinity you know that's a damnable heresy the people who believe in this oneness doctrine are not saved they have a different god and a different jesus but good people who are saved they listen to this junk and what do they do they start developing like a hybrid view well it's kind of both right you know make sure that's not you don't be that guy stay with the full-blown trinity doctrine and don't don't get like half into this oneness thing because i'm telling you it's just people that are good people god i'm talking about people like you people like you're here tonight and i'm sure there there's judices here or whatever but i'm saying like in general you know i i like to think that 99 of the people here actually love the lord you're here for the right reasons who's here for the right reasons say amen tonight if you're here for the right reason yeah we're all here for the right reason okay but here's the thing even some of you are going to quit the church just statistically speaking even some of you are going to swerve into vain jangling and maybe it's something you know i'm just throwing out a couple examples there's 20 more i could bring up of goofy doctrines that could pull you out of church that could get you uh off of soul winning or get you to quit solely look you need to make sure that that you stay on course doctrinally you know i preached this at the church plant in la uh a few weeks ago when i was there i said hey there's the sky's the limit to what this church can achieve but don't get off course doctrinally don't go into heresy stay with the bible's clear teachings don't get off on this new cute oh his name's actually yeshua look the people behind this yeshua yahweh thing they're not saved but even saved people could dabble in that you know where they just kind of dabble in it a little bit and it can get them off course and into vain jangling and off of the truth so we need to look to ourselves don't we because john's talking to us when he says look to yourselves he's saying steven anderson look to yourself you know faithful word baptist church look to yourselves don't get sucked in by these people now let's just stop and man there's so little time to go over all this i'm almost done though because i die i'm gonna i'm gonna be done on time even though there's too much to talk about but what it says here many deceivers are entered into the world verse 7 who confess not that jesus christ has come in the flesh keep your finger there go to first john chapter 4 a lot of people misunderstand what this means because the bible says in verse 2 of chapter 4 or we'll start in verse 1 beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they're of god because many false prophets are gone out into the world hereby know ye the spirit of god every spirit that confesseth that jesus christ has come in the flesh is of god and every spirit that confesseth not that jesus christ has come in the flesh is not of god and this is that spirit of anti-christ where have you heard that it should come and even now already it is in the world so you see this similar statement here about confessing that jesus christ has come in the flesh right look at verse 15 of the same chapter it says whosoever shall confess that jesus is the son of god god dwelleth in him and he and god now some people will mix this up and they'll change this verse to where it just says well whosoever shall say that jesus is the son of god look there are some people who say that jesus is the son of god that are not of god when the bible says confess when you confess something it's when you actually are saying something that you actually believe to be the truth you know just saying the lord jesus is not the same as confessing with your mouth the lord jesus because you have to believe in your heart that he's the lord jesus so some people will do i've had just these wild-eyed super cult leader false prophet types just come up to you and just say hey the first thing i want to tell you before i say anything else is that i believe that jesus christ has come in the flesh you look like you've had somebody tell you that garrett yeah you know they'll just say that to you like now you know i'm of god so believe everything i'm about to say to you and then they just come at you with the worst heresy okay so that's an abuse of what this is saying now john here is saying that if people truly believe in their heart and confess that jesus is the son of god that's what it means to confess something when you when you go into a courtroom and confess what are you doing you're finally telling what's really true or at least what you really believe to be true you're confessing what's in your heart at that point and that's what it means to confess now if a person truly believes in their heart that jesus is the son of god then they're saved right whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life but a lot of people say that they believe that but that's not confessing that they believe that that's just saying that they believe that do you see the difference okay now why does he bring up this specific issue though about jesus christ coming in the flesh well this is probably a big heresy that they were dealing with at that time now history books will tell us that this was a heresy back then and this is a big heresy even now and what does this look like well let's stop and think about it for a minute what do we have to believe in order to believe that jesus christ came in the flesh well the first thing that means is that he's a real person because some people could just say well there wasn't really a literal jesus it's just it's just a figurative story it's an allegory right there are people out there that could say something like that other people would say that jesus was just an apparition he was just a vision that he was not actually physically here as a human being that was born of a virgin that would be another heresy that would fall under this specifically but then also if you stop and think about it there's this doctrine out there that's a new age doctrine of course there's nothing new about it but it falls under the new age category today but it's something that was around even back in the time of the new testament and it's called gnosticism you might have heard that term before or sometimes it's called by the fancy name of adoptionistic epianism and so you know there are all kinds of names for this adoptionistic gnosticism and basically as soon as i start explaining it to you you'll realize that there are a lot of people who actually believe in this even today kind of the oprah winfrey types the new age types and basically that is that there's sort of a christ spirit that rests on different messiahs for different generations as it were okay so for example you know the same spirit that buddha had that jesus have you heard people talk like this like new age you know buddha jesus muhammad you know we're all worshiping the same god it's kind of this christ spirit but the reason it's called adoptionistic is because it's this idea of basically the holy spirit coming upon a certain person and that person becomes the christ at that point okay and then in the next generation it's a different christ okay now that's why we have people today all over the world even claiming to be what i'm the second coming of jesus christ because they're claiming to be like a reincarnation of jesus or that the christ spirit is now using them as his host or whatever that's a very wicked false doctrine obviously but what these new ager types will teach and what these heretics these gnostics will teach is that when christ was baptized basically that's when he became christ so they believe that before that he was just jesus of nazareth he was just the man jesus of nazareth right but then at his baptism he was adopted as the son of god at that point he was basically at that point selected like okay this is going to be the messiah right so he's just the man jesus of nazareth and then at his baptism right this is what these heretics would teach these new agers he became christ he became the messiah when the spirit of the lord came upon him and then they'll teach that when he died on the cross he stopped being christ because he said my god my god why is that forsaken me that was when it left him okay so this is a very serious heresy and this is something that john was obviously dealing with where people had these kind of beliefs back then of basically christ not not jesus christ came in the flesh physical but no just a spiritual christ spirit was on the man jesus and or let's think of another heresy that could fall under this how about the jahovah's witnesses you know who say that jesus christ's resurrection was not a flesh resurrection it was not a bodily resurrection there are many people who do not believe in the bodily resurrection of christ they would fall under this because they don't think that jesus christ came in the flesh it doesn't mean that he just was born in the flesh but that he did everything in the you know he was he was born he died he was buried he rose again he did that stuff literally in the flesh and he's coming again the second time in the flesh so we see that you know the jahovah's false witnesses could be under this category as well now when it comes to this wicked doctrine that we've been dealing with of modalism and i don't say we've been dealing with it as in it's in our church because it's not in our church and if anybody in our church believes in it they will immediately be thrown out of our church but we've been dealing with it as in preaching against it and fighting against it because of the people that we kicked out and everything like that eight months ago that tried to bring in this damnable heresy the thing about this oneness theology or modalistic theology is that it teaches something very similar to that new age gnostic doctrine and this is why because of the fact that they teach this oneness doctrine teaches that there's not three persons in the godhead father god the father jesus and the holy ghost they teach instead that there's not a distinction between the father and the son as two persons but rather that the distinction is between the man jesus and the divine jesus now here's the thing yes jesus is both human and divine but there's not a distinction between the fact that he's human it's not like a split there where they can be separated the one from the other jesus is god always has been god always will be god and there's no man jesus that's not god jesus that's not god does everybody understand what i just said jesus has always been man always will be man was man as he walked on this earth jesus has always been the son of god he was the son of god when he walked on this earth he will always be the son of god because jesus christ is the same yesterday and today and forever okay so they have to create this artificial distinction between the man jesus and divine jesus since they're ignoring the real distinction between god the father and god the son they just believe it's the same exact person so they have to create this other artificial distinction here's where it gets bad though when jesus said on the cross my god my god why hast thou forsaken me from a trinitarian perspective that's the son saying to the father why hast thou forsaken me makes perfect sense now jesus was forsaken by god the father he didn't say did you forsake me he said why did you forsake me and jesus is always right everything he says is always the truth and you say i've already heard you preach this before pastor and i said well listen to it again because we need to hear it again and again and again and again to realize why the trinity is important so listen to it again this is critical if jesus said to the father in heaven my god my god why hast thou forsaken me from a trinitarian perspective it makes perfect sense that the son is saying to the father why did you forsake me but from a oneness view you know what it is it's the man jesus saying to the divine jesus why have you forsaken me so what was he what was the man jesus forsaken by by god so they have a jesus dying on the cross for them that's not god they have a jesus that's not divine dying on the cross for them because god has left him that aspect has left him because it's just one person and that's the aspect that's gone that's wicked that's weird that's heresy it's the father and the son that's the distinction not just well no no it's just the man who's this the man jesus because the man jesus i know is god and he's always been the son of god even in the old testament he's the son of god how about with shadrach mishak and abednego in the fiery furnace he's called the son of god case closed if you're reading the king james amen but you know this this doctrine is a false doctrine and then the heretic at our church who was teaching this garbage secretly going around spreading this tyler baker let's just call out the name for what it is okay tyler baker preached a sermon where he said that jesus christ received eternal life at his baptism who heard him say that okay that's a weirdo doctrine and when you hear that kind of garbage when you're that kind of dung you ask yourself where is this coming from because you're like the apostle paul in galatians where you're like this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth where's this coming from but you know what it's pretty easy to figure out where it comes from if you just do a little bit of reading into oneness pentecostalism because oneness pentecostalism one of the famous teachers of oneness pentecostalism is called william branham and he taught that at jesus's baptism that's where he received eternal life that's where he received the christ spirit that's where he became divine and then when he was on the cross and said my god my god why is thou forsaking me that's where he ceased to be divine because god can't die that's what they teach you see how this and and people to this day they're like well i believe in the trinity but what what's so bad about that doctrine well that's one of the things that's so bad about it is that that's where it takes you to some very dark places it's a dark path look to yourselves don't go down that dark path don't be carried about with every wind of foolish doctrine you see jesus christ did not receive eternal life it is baptism that's the stupidest thing there's no bible for that the only thing that happened is baptism is that the spirit of god descended like a dove and lit upon him why don't we just teach that why do we have to make up stuff that isn't there and have all these weird convoluted explanation no no he didn't receive that doesn't even make sense it's just a made-up doctrine but what it is is it's starting to it's starting to get people ready for more oneness you know what i mean it's like it's just kind of like planting seeds in your mind to just see how far they can take you down this oneness path and if you're saved you'll never go all the way into their damnable heresy but you know what you could start getting confused you could start thinking that that it might be partially true or it's a hybrid view and these guys claim to have a hybrid view they don't have a hybrid view they have a full-blown oneness pentecostal view okay but even if they had a hybrid view it's false and you know why they want us to act like well we're not trinity and we're not oneness you know why because they want to act like they've got something new because pride is like my hair's green it's like a spiritual nose ring to them it's like a spiritual tongue stud to be like hey check out this new doctrine and nobody's ever come up with this doctrine before you know yeah i mean people pierce the ears but i i put a piercing in the back of my neck well yeah i know i've you know yeah people pierce their tongue but i made a big hole in my chin where you can see the bottom of my teeth i put a giant disc in my lower lip you know it's like they just all they want to do something different something new right i'm gonna get a tattoo on my eyeball have you seen those and i saw something this lady went blind because she's getting a tattoo on the whites of her eyes so they'll just be all black so that she can look like an insect you know what i mean it's no white with pupils it's just like black like like a monster or something but why are people doing that because they want they're like hey look what i came up with and you know what that doctrine look when you're coming when you're like oh all of christianity is wrong on the trinity and the one is pentecostals aren't right either here is tylertarianism okay it looks even more stupid than getting a tattoo on your eyeball i'm not kidding it's a spiritual nose ring for you so the point is that you know john's warning us i didn't get to the whole chapter it's such a great chapter i mean it's it's just such a great concept you know there's wicked people out there and good people get sucked in by them but whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of christ where you start getting into another jesus and another god when you go all the way he's like these people they don't even have god but you know what good people who do have god can get off course and stop being fruitful because they turn aside into this vain jangling so we need to make sure that we we take heed unto our doctrine and and and you know sometimes people might think that my sermons get a little too basic sometimes but that's what being a fundamentalist is all about you know and and and you know we don't want to be basic all the time because then we'll be bored if it says all right everybody two plus two is still four we don't want to be too basic but you know what we don't want to be too complicated all the time either because we need to let the foundations be strongly laid and so it's all you know it's good to go back and sometimes okay let's let's revisit the deity of christ the trinity let's revisit basic doctrines about salvation eternal security heaven hell that's what being a fundamentalist is all about the fundamentals keep the fundamentals right and build on that foundation but make sure you have your fundamentals right and don't be that guy that five years from now is an internet troll he's in some house church with yahshua and yahweh and he's just debating the flat earth and don't be that guy stay with the fruitful institution one of these bozos said well you know so and so the church is better than faithful word because you know the best church is the church that's the closest to the truth well you know what that's not what the bible says the bible says the best church is the one that's bringing forth the most fruit because you know what it's interesting in revelation two and three he said i know thy works he didn't say i know how close you are to the truth and you know what we're not close to the truth we're there we have the truth well you know he's got to get a little closer to the truth on the godhead no we're already there we're maxed out on trinity truth yeah because we believe right on the trinity we're not like trying to figure out you know if if happily we might feel after it you know we're already there and you know what we're already there when it comes to salvation the king james version soul winning the trinity heaven hell now i'm not saying we're right about every little thing but on the fundamentals we're right buddy and you know what if you stay with us and stay with the fundamentals you'll bring forth through for the rest of your life or you can go off the rails that's what it comes down to let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this book lord i pray that you just help us all to look to ourselves to read our bibles not to be carried about with every wind of doctrine to be humble and to listen to people that give us advice and preach to us not blindly but to receive the word that they give us with readiness of mind and then search the scriptures daily whether these things are so lord help us all to be here a year from now five years from now or if we're not here physically at least to be in a like-minded church or at least to be in a soul-winning church or a church that at least has the fundamentals right lord i pray that no one would be picked off by the devil and his minions lord and and it's in jesus name that i pray these things amen